


Merlinderella

by Caledonia



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Boys Kissing, Closeted Character, First Kiss, Literally a kiss fest, M/M, Modern Era, Roommates, Spin the Bottle, arty's kiss fest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 08:52:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17383493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caledonia/pseuds/Caledonia
Summary: Merlin and Arthur have never gotten along very well, a situation that gets worse when they're assigned to be roommates at University. Things take an interesting turn after a game of blindfolded spin the bottle. Will Arthur be able to find out who it was that kissed him back so well? The only way he can figure it out is by tracking down everyone in the circle and kissing them again.What will happen when Arthur finds out it was Merlin all along?





	Merlinderella

**Author's Note:**

> I love [Arthur_Pendragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arthur_pendragon) and I love [this fest](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/merthur_kiss_fest). That is all. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own these characters and I'm not making any money from this work.

Merlin Emrys can’t believe it when he gets his accommodation assignment for university. His roommate will be Arthur Pendragon. Merlin knows Arthur Pendragon, the most popular, most arrogant, best looking person from his school. They don't get along, and they never have. It is going to be painfully uncomfortable to share a room with him. Merlin phones the admissions office immediately and begs to be reassigned but is told that it's not possible and to make the best of the situation. His mother tries to cheer him up by saying that Arthur might be a different kind of boy since all his school friends are going elsewhere to uni, maybe he'll get in with a better crowd and leave Merlin well enough alone. Merlin doesn’t care - he knows Arthur Pendragon is too arrogant to change and nothing will convince him to think otherwise.

[--]

Arthur Pendragon can’t believe it when he gets his accommodation assignment for university. Merlin Emrys. Awkward, skinny, clumsy, stubborn... Merlin had taken against Arthur years ago, for reasons unknown to him, and had spent their school days soundly ignoring Arthur, despite Arthur only ever being nice to him. Arthur phones the admissions office and asks to be reassigned but is told that it's not possible regardless of how much money his father donates to grease the wheels. His sister tries to cheer him up by saying that Merlin is only a roommate and that doesn’t mean they have to be friends, that being homosexual isn’t contagious and that Arthur should just leave Merlin well enough alone. Arthur lets his sister think what she likes because he's too scared to correct her. If only she knew Merlin's being gay wasn't the issue… Well, it didn't matter, he knew Merlin hated him, and he doubted that living together would change anything. 

[--]

On moving-in day Merlin arrives before Arthur, thank fuck for that, and is able to pick the bottom bunk, guessing that Arthur, with all his masculine posturing, will be drawn to the top bunk as a symbol of dominance. It takes less than thirty minutes for Merlin to unpack his meager belongings and tidy them away. After that Merlin departs the room, leaving a brief note, “Please don’t move my things without asking, thank you.”, and heading off to rendezvous with the gay-straight alliance folks he'd met online the previous week.

[--]

“Please don’t move my things without asking, thank you.” Arthur reads aloud from the hastily scribbled note tacked to the front of the door. Merlin must already have moved in. Arthur crumples the note and flings it into the bin just inside the door to the room. Merlin, it seems, has commandeered the bottom bunk without so much as asking Arthur whether that was OK. Arthur takes his time unpacking and putting his things away, noticing as he does that he possesses five times the belongings as Merlin, and that all of his things are new whereas Merlin’s are well used but well cared-for. Before leaving to meet up with the rugby lads he’d met the week before Arthur scribbles a note to Merlin and sticks it to their door, wondering whether this will be their only means of communication for the entire school year.

[--]

“Why would I touch your stuff?” Gwaine reads the note Arthur left on the door, looking at Merlin with a question etched on his face. “Well, he seems nice...”

“Don't ask.” Merlin says, shouldering into the room and throwing Arthur’s note into the bin next to his own. 

“Did you know him from before? Usually they room you with people from your hometown the first year, not really understanding the fact that university is your chance to get the fuck away from people from your hometown.” Gwaine flings himself unceremoniously onto Merlin’s bed, making himself quite at home. 

“Yeah, he’s an arrogant pretty boy. Not an ally.” Merlin says, ducking into the closet he shares with Arthur Pendragon and raking through his clothes to find something he’ll be comfortable wearing to a gay bar. He can hear Gwaine laughing from his bed.

“He's probably in denial. Please tell me you plan on bringing boys back to your room.” Gwaine says, still laughing.

“You’re here aren’t you? Is this shirt OK?” Merlin says, emerging from the closet and holding up a t-shirt with a huge rainbow motif. Gwaine nods and Merlin takes off his old shirt to put the new one on.

“Christ you’ve not been here an hour and already you’re shagging blokes in our shared bloody room.” Arthur Pendragon says, coming into the room with two absolutely massive guys. Merlin, still shirtless, stares at Arthur, embarrassed but annoyed.

“Jealous?” Gwaine says, rising from the bed. He is roughly the same height as Arthur but he isn't nearly as broad, and Merlin wonders whether Gwaine has any idea what he's up against. The absolutely massive guy behind Arthur is sizing Gwaine up, but like he wants to eat him alive rather than beat him up. 

“Of Merlin?” Arthur asks, as though it's the most ridiculous thing in the world. Merlin, his worst fears confirmed, (Arthur is a homophobic fucker after all, no wonder they hadn't been friends), throws on the rainbow shirt and, grabbing Gwaine’s arm, pushes past Arthur and his new friends into the corridor.

“We were just leaving.” Merlin says and, looking back, adds, “Don’t touch my shit.”

[--]

Two weeks after the start of term Arthur still hasn’t said more than a hundred words to his roommate. Merlin is never in their room and when he is he keeps to himself, listening to loud music on poor-quality headphones. Their first interaction as roommates had gone so poorly that Arthur doubted they’d ever recover from it. Merlin was careful to not get changed in their room now, as well, and he hadn’t brought any guys up again, not even the carelessly attractive dark-haired guy from that first day. Arthur had to conclude that Merlin assumed him uncomfortable with gay men, but Arthur could care less. He'd just been surprised at how fast Merlin worked - bringing someone home on your first day? Was Merlin magic? Even Arthur with his proven track record of dating the most attractive women around hadn't snogged any girls until that first weekend. 

Arthur resigned himself to the idea that he would barely interact with Merlin for the entire school year until he found himself at a party being thrown by some upperclassmen and the guest list seemed to include every single first year student in the entire university.

Which is fine because Arthur will just drink and dance and make out with a pretty girl and possibly go home alone to the room he shares with Merlin, but hopefully not have to speak to Merlin until Sunday night or Monday morning.

What he doesn’t expect is to find himself more than slightly drunk and playing a game of Truth or Dare with a group of people that includes Merlin Emrys.

[--]

“Truth or Dare?” A girl called Freya asks him, giggling.

“Truth.” Merlin answers, thinking he’ll probably get away with lying if it's a bad enough question because the only person here who knows anything about him is Arthur bloody Pendragon.

“Um...Have you ever had a sexual fantasy about a straight boy?” Freya asks, obviously noticing Merlin’s LGBTQ+ t-shirt and bracelets.

“Yes.” Merlin answers, which is easy because it isn’t a lie. What isn’t easy is keeping his eyes from finding Arthur who had been the subject of those fantasies. A few people laugh but no one makes a big deal out of it and the questions move on. 

[--]

“Have you ever had sexual fantasies about a boy?” Gwaine asks, staring at Arthur as though it's a competition. Merlin wants the ground to swallow him whole, but he doesn't look away when Arthur's eyes find his.

“No.” Arthur answers, immediately, but he doesn't look away from Merlin when he says it and a few people make inappropriate noises of disbelief. By the way Arthur’s ears began to blush, Merlin wonders whether he’d lied.

[--]

Several hours and many, many drinks later, Arthur finds himself in a room where people are lined up and one girl, Freya?, is wearing a blindfold and awkwardly kissing someone in the line while everyone cheers and laughs. After a few seconds the blindfolded girl detaches herself to a roar of giggles, then takes two steps sideways and blindly attempts to kiss the next person in the queue. 

“The hell is this?” Arthur asks of the person nearest him.

“Blindfold Spin the Bottle. Sort of.” The person, whose name Arthur doesn't know, answers. “If the bottle lands on you you’ve got to put on the blindfold and kiss everyone in the circle.”

“Boys  _ and  _ girls?” Arthur asks, wary, but the question is answered for him as the blindfolded girl takes another two steps sideways and starts snogging the girl in front of her. “What is the point?” 

“Just a bit of fun isn't it?”

A few people catcall and make whooping noises as the girls break apart, both embarrassed. Arthur can think of nothing he’d like to do less in the entire world, at least until the girl takes another step sideways and blindly kisses Merlin Emrys, and it is so hot that Arthur stops breathing until they are done. Arthur has already decided to join the circle when a beautiful blonde girl across the room nods at him encouragingly and mimes that it's definitely his turn next.

[--]

Merlin sits back in the circle as someone places the bottle back on the floor between them. He’s so far been snogged by six people, four blokes and two girls, none of whose kisses had raised a single hair on his arms. The first guy kissed like he was trying to reach Merlin’s spleen with his tongue. The girl after that had a cold, slimy mouth. The guy after that was more experienced in the kissing department but he was obviously straight and had seized up when he’d realised he was kissing a bloke. The next guy had a tongue like a slug. Freya’s kiss has been wonderful, but she was a girl, and Merlin’s motor had not started running. And after her was Gwaine who was an excellent kisser but Merlin already knew that.

When the bottle lands on Arthur Pendragon his eyes fall immediately on Merlin and not, surprisingly, on the attractive blonde girl who’d somehow managed to convince Arthur that this was a good idea without even speaking to him. Merlin thinks Arthur is surely going to back down, there's no way he’d consent to willingly kiss men, right? But Arthur doesn’t take his eyes off Merlin as the blindfold is lowered and a million teenage fantasies flood Merlin’s memory as he stands and lets himself get rearranged into a line with all the others.

He's going to kiss Arthur Pendragon.

[--]

There's a line of seven people and Arthur has no idea which one is the blonde girl. He knows she's a few inches shorter than he is, but that's about it. He also doesn’t know which one is his rugby pal, Percy, or Merlin Emrys either, but he is trying not to think about that. This is all a laugh, right? He kisses the first two girls quite dispassionately and the third person is definitely Percy, whom he merely pecks on the corner of his mouth, which makes everyone in the room chant obscenities at them in a humorous manner. Percy chivvies Arthur along with a brisk push sideways so Arthur doesn’t re-do their kiss, which doesn't surprise Arthur who knows that Percy is probably only playing this game so he can snog Merlin's curly-haired friend, who is also playing the game. The fourth person Arthur steps up to has skin so smooth it feels like silk against Arthur’s lips as he awkwardly tries to find their mouth without being able to see it. 

[--]

By the time Arthur reaches Merlin, Merlin’s nerves are completely shot. He’s dreamed about kissing Arthur Pendragon for years, and this is his only chance. Technically the rules of the game are that you aren't meant to touch the other person - only their lips, but as soon as Arthur’s lips make contact with his own, Merlin steps an inch closer, angling his head.

It's better than anything Merlin could have ever imagined. Arthur’s lips are a perfect fit against his and there isn’t any disagreement between them as to when their tongues will get involved, nor how much pressure to apply. Ignoring the rules of the game completely Merlin raises his hands and fists them into the hair at the back of Arthur’s neck, making sure to at least try to remain anonymous. By the barely audible moan that escapes Arthur’s mouth at the gesture it's appreciated as Merlin turns Arthur’s head a centimeter to deepen their kiss and the watching crowd begins to hoot and whistle at the obvious passion between them.

[--]

When Arthur tries to put his arms around the kisser someone stops him - it's too easy to discern the identity of the snogger when hands are involved. The room full of people are all cheering them on as their kiss lasts much longer than these kisses are meant to, but Arthur can’t stop - he can’t pull away. This is the best kiss he’s ever had and he doesn’t want it to stop. He wants to melt into the hands caressing his neck and he wants to press himself against the body standing inches away and let them feel the effect their kiss is having on him. Instead, after far too short a time, the person Arthur is kissing pulls away, leaving Arthur breathless and wanting. 

He kisses the last three people quite dispassionately, barely noticing the quality of their kisses because nothing could compare to what he's just experienced. When he reaches the end of the line he tries to remove his blindfold quickly enough so that he can figure out who the phenomenal kisser was, but by the time the knot is loose enough to take the blindfold off, the crowd had dispersed back into a circle.

[--]

After the party Arthur becomes an even bigger pain in the ass. Merlin is shouted at and shunted from his own room, like Arthur is a snake that might strike at any time. Add to that the fact that Merlin knew what it felt like to kiss Arthur and that Arthur had plainly enjoyed their kiss more than he wanted to admit and Merlin’s life was basically hell.

What had he ever been thinking?

[--]

Arthur manages to figure out the names of all seven people that had been in the line that night at the party. He also manages to figure out a few of the people from whom the phenomenal kiss had definitely not come - most obviously, Percival. Freya kisses him after a history lecture one afternoon and Arthur manages to rule her out immediately. Guinevere had been there, also, but he's talked to Lance and is sure she's the biter. He arranges a date with Sophie, the attractive blonde who'd talked him into this whole mess in the first place, and rushes through the night just to get to the kiss at the end, but is severely disappointed to learn that it hadn’t been her - she was the one that felt like kissing someone in the rain.

Which means there are only three people left who could possibly be The Kisser, one of whom is Merlin Emrys.

[--]

“Apparently he’s going around and kissing everyone who was at the party.” Gwaine informs Merlin one afternoon when they're supposed to be doing homework but instead are lounging on Merlin’s bed, Merlin lying with his head on Gwaine’s stomach. Gwaine is eating grapes and, every now and then, popping one into Merlin’s mouth.

“Has he made it to you yet?” Merlin asks, staring resolutely up at the bottom side of Arthur’s bed. 

“Has he fuck. I’m not kissing that fucker unless he fucking pays me.” Gwaine says, with a characteristic display of vocabulary. “I still can’t believe what you did, though. How could you kiss him like that knowing what he thinks of you - what he thinks of all of us? You've never even kissed  _ me  _ like that!”

“I knew it was my only chance and he’s fit as hell.” Merlin says, truthfully. Gwaine doesn’t argue with him.

[--]

Arthur tracks down the last girl from the party and it really, really hadn’t been her. How could someone’s mouth be cold? Arthur shudders thinking of his lips pressed against hers.

He trudges back to his dorm room in a thoroughly depressed state, hating the fact that the only two people left that it could have possibly been are guys. Of course Arthur had known since he was about eleven years old that he was attracted to guys sometimes (well, only Merlin, actually), but he’s repressed that knowledge, because Merlin clearly loathed him. Was it nice to be attracted to someone who thought you were useless? No! So Arthur ignored his attraction, to feel safer.

But now he isn’t safe at all, because he knows, he knows before even asking Gwaine to kiss him and get ruled out, he  _ knows  _ that it was Merlin Emrys who kissed him so well and so furiously that Arthur hasn’t thought of anything else for weeks now.

[--]

Merlin reads and re-reads the text message from Gwaine seven or eight times before Arthur comes into their room. “He knows it’s you, sorry mate - he paid me £20 to snog him in the stairwell.”

Arthur doesn’t speak to him - he barely even looks at him as Merlin dodges past him to head down the corridor to the loos. What the fuck is Merlin going to do now?

[--]

It happens at another party. Why Merlin had agreed to play the game again at all was beyond him, considering how poorly the first round had gone. But, when the bottle lands on him he puts the blindfold on and gamely steps in front of the first person in the line of six. Arthur Pendragon is in this line somewhere and Merlin is determined not to confirm that it had been him, Merlin, the first time.

[--]

Arthur stands at the very end of the line, waiting. He hears giggles and laughs and cat calls as Merlin Emrys moves his way down the line. Merlin is the only person Arthur hasn’t managed to kiss again since the last party, so even if Arthur hadn’t already  _ known _ , he would know. 

He can feel the person next to him tense which means he's next in the queue. He mentally prepares himself, still undecided as to whether he's going to go for it and snog Merlin’s face off or if he's going to chicken out.

Merlin’s lips meet his for only a fraction of a second and the entire room holds its breath, but Merlin kisses him like you’d kiss a family member and then steps away as everyone breaks back into a circle and removes their blindfolds.

Arthur feels the crushing weight of disappointment and almost a little bereaved.

[--]

Arthur is waiting for him when he returns home that night. Of course Arthur is waiting for him. Merlin barely gets his hoodie off before Arthur speaks to him from the dark of their room.

“I know it was you.” Arthur says, his voice sounding from the shadows.

“Me what?” Merlin says back, though he knows exactly what Arthur means.

Arthur doesn’t answer and Merlin, sensing danger, backs himself towards the door to their room, ready to run. Faster than Merlin would have thought possible Arthur is there, his hands pressed to the door at either side of Merlin’s head. Merlin tries not to flinch away from him, but it's impossible, and he closes his eyes tight against whatever abuse, verbal or physical, that Arthur might throw at him.

[ --]

Even in the darkness of the room it's clear that Merlin is terrified of Arthur. Not terrified of Arthur in the way that Arthur is terrified of Merlin, but actually fearing for his safety. 

“Why are you flinching? I’m not going to hurt you.” Arthur says, being sure to take a partial step back and giving Merlin more space. Merlin relaxes a bit, but not completely. “Why would I hurt you?”

“Straight guys don’t usually take too kindly to being in sexual fantasies of gay men.” Merlin says, his voice a whisper.

“You’ve had fantasies about me?” Arthur asks, his heart racing.

“Of course I have, you’re gorgeous.” Merlin answers, and his eyes are still downcast like he’s embarrassed. “I tried to get reassigned to a different room you know. So you wouldn’t have to live with me. But they wouldn’t let me.” 

Arthur laughs, and Merlin looks up at him, his eyes so sad and confused it stops Arthur’s laughter. “Sorry, it’s just that I tried to get reassigned, too.”

“Because you didn’t want to live with a gay man?” Merlin nods his head, confirming the obvious. “And now I’ve gone and kissed you like an idiot and you’re worried that I’m going to try to make a move on you.” Merlin looks away again, eyes closed, then looks back at Arthur, “If you want me to move, we can speak to someone, but I promise you, I  _ promise you _ I would never do anything like that.”

Arthur weighs his options. He can brush it off as something that happened at a party, unimportant in the grand scheme of things. He can make a big deal of it and get a new roommate. Or he can act on his own feelings, and see where it leads.

“And what would happen if I try to make a move on you?”

When Arthur kisses Merlin this time it isn't a game or a joke, it's just the single most important thing Arthur has ever done in his entire life.

[--]

When Arthur kisses him some tension inside Merlin unwinds, slowly. He kisses back, pressing his body against Arthur, letting Arthur feel the sharpness of his hips against him. Arthur’s hands pulls at Merlin as though he can’t get him close enough, his fingers strong at the back of Merlin’s neck. Arthur’s lips are firm and their mouths part simultaneously as they strive to explore each other more deeply. A second before Merlin becomes lightheaded with breathlessness, he breaks away from Arthur.

“All these years, I didn’t think you fancied boys at all.” Merlin says, and he’s distracted by Arthur nosing up his jawline.

“‘m not.” Arthur says, as his teeth graze Merlin’s chin, “Not boys, plural. It’s only ever been you.”

Merlin’s knees nearly buckle. “Shit.” he says, and he pushes Arthur away from him, all the way across their room to Merlin’s bed. “Arthur, you can’t say something like that to me.” Merlin sits astride Arthur and leans down to kiss his grinning face.

After a few moments Arthur pushes him gently away, looking annoyed. "I can't believe I had to kiss all those people just to get us here."

Merlin can't help it, he collapses with laughter, slotting himself beside Arthur on the bed. When he calms down Arthur is looking at him, still annoyed. Merlin bursts out laughing again. "I'm sorry, Arthur, I can't help it." Merlin says, gasping for breath, "You had to kiss Percy."

Arthur stares up at the bottom of his own bed for a few moments before shaking his head. "I imagine if I'd tried that stunt again, your pal Gwaine would have punched me in the face."

Merlin howls with laughter and Arthur keeps shaking his head. When Merlin calms down enough, he reaches up and pulls Arthur down on top of him. "I think we'll stick to just kissing each other for a while. Yeah?"

"I think that sounds like a brilliant idea." Arthur agrees as their lips meet.

**Fin.**

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for the title. I really am. But it was too good an opportunity to pass up. <3


End file.
